Stash Busting Pet Blanket

I would like to start of by apologising for been AWOL for most of this year. I have still been crocheting and knitting but its been a strange year. The loss of my friend back in February knocked me for six, my girls growing up too fast and the eldest leaving home for University, discovering a love for caravanning plus lots of other reasons have made 2016 a bit of a strange year, some of it happy but a lot of it sad.  I have felt like I was drowning  in lots of things I wanted to do but neither had the energy or motivation to do so.  My office work space has turned into a shed and I have moved boxes from here to there and back again about 3 times. I have discovered a new love along the way too in Jamberry nail wraps, but more about that later.

So I have made a decision to sort myself out and start 2017 in a positive frame of mind. Strangely enough the Christmas holidays have made me realise how bad things had gotten. I started going to my local Slimming World back at the beginning of October and so far I have lost 1.5 stone (21 lbs) with a long way to go to get to my target weight, but over the Christmas holidays I slipped back into my old habits which made me feel rubbish about myself and sitting here in my (shed) over the last few days has made my mind up for me. It is time to sort out my work space and divide it into my loves of crochet & Jamberry. Slimming World has given my a confidence that I didn't know I had and I have gone from feeling positive to negative over the holidays. Today is the start of all things positive for me and that's the way I intend to keep it.

As things are, right this minute I can't find anything in my (shed) and I want to be able to just go to what I need when I need it. I thought about making it my New Year's resolution but decided that won't work for me, it never has before, so why label it and turn it into a chore. I started bullet journaling a few months ago and I didn't really think that I had that much to write about but I have nearly finished my 1st journal and it is helping me get organised and ready for a new me.  I am working on various new crochet patterns and trying to organise my future with Jamberry.  The idea of this blog was to share with you my followers what I was up to and I haven't, but I have decided that I need you all to help me with my journey through 2017 and beyond. I never thought that anyone would be interested in my ramblings but you all seem to love my crochet patterns and I do have 70,000 kg of stash, so lots of patterns to come. I have made a decision to buy NO more yarn until 2018. Now that is a New Year's Resolution. My 1st offering is a fab stash buster, you all know that I have a few pets and I have a local PDSA pet hospital who always need blankets etc, so I thought lets stash bust a few pet blankets.  I thought granny squares, super easy but not quite what I wanted, then I thought round, lets make round simple blankets which are surprisingly quick to complete.

I started by sorting out my oddments into yarn weights, when I had a number of DK yarn balls, using my trusty winder I set about winding them into one ball. I needed approximately  100g for my blanket, when I had enough I wound them all into one ball and picked up my 4mm hook.

I started with a ch2, then 12tr's into the 1t chain.

Next row: 2tr's in each stitch to leave you with 24 sts.

Next row: work 2tr's in next st, 1tr in next stitch continue to the end to leave you with 36 sts.

Next row: work 2tr's in next st, 1tr in each of the next 2 sts,  should leave you with 48 sts.

You basically continue increasing by 12 sts each row.

I continued until my ball was coming to an end, I ended up with 22 rows using 96g. The completed blanket measures 21" which is perfect for a cat or small dog. Here is Cody modelling her new blanket. She preferred to be under the blanket rather than on top.

All that is left me to say today is Happy New Year to all of you and your families. I hope 2017 is a fantastic year for all!

Tribute to a Friend

 Through making items for charity, I made a lovely friend who called Maureen. I would visit as often as I could to have a lovely catch up and to share stories of latest makes and charity needs etc. It was like a day trip, as you could never just pop in for an hour, it was always 4 hours with lunch included. Maureen was a very poorly lady and was more or less housebound, but she was a fantastic lady with lots of friends and a crazy sense of humour. I was making this little cardigan on the day I received a message that Maureen had sadly passed away, so I decided to name this new pattern in Maureen's memory. She was more of a knitter and enjoyed to make toys but she so loved to see what crochet designs I had recently made. I used to save them up so I could take them over to show her. This little cardigan pattern just seemed a nice thing to do in her memory. I organised the pattern on Ravelry and in just two and a bits weeks it has had over 1000 downloads. This makes me happy to feel the that lots of little girls will be wearing my cardigan in honour of such a fabulous lady. If you would like the pattern just click on the photo and you will be taken to my Ravelry store. I would love it if you would download the pattern and make just 1 little cardigan and donate to your favourite charity.

Sweet Little Slippers

I adore making things for babies, wether it is teeny tiny premature garments for my charities or garments for newborns and toddlers. Not only are they quick to make but look so cute when complete that you can't help but go AWW!. These little slippers are no exception. I have tried and tried to make baby shoes using various patterns, but for some reason they just didn't gel with me, so on my every growing list of designs to create were a pair of little slippers. These took a good week to design and I am really pleased with them. Although the photos are for boys I have made these for girls just don't have the right photo to share. The pattern is available in my Ravelry store just click on the top photo.

Not Yet Spring!

I designed and created a lot of cowls for the winter months but all of them for adults and I thought why not for a child, so I set about making a cowl that would be suitable for a 6 - 12 months with a matching beanie style hat. In time I will make them in larger sizes. When my two girls were small I could never get them to keep a scarf on in the winter so I ended up tying the scarf in a huge knot which was obviously uncomfortable being right under their chins. Then I thought why not make a cowl for children, no knots, no uncomfortable bulge under the chin. I have now made a few of these and I think they turn out quite cute, especially when finished off with a flower or maybe a bow.

The pattern is now for sale via my Etsy shop, just clock in the photo if you're interested.

Jack & Jill Pattern

I crochet a lot for different charities and wanted a little jacket that would suit both a baby boy and baby girl, but also a pattern that didn't take much thinking about, just hook and go. So after playing around a lot with different looks I came up with a cute simple little jacket. The finished size using 4mm hook and Stylecraft Special DK is a 14" chest. I have also made these jackets using lots of different types of DK yarns always with my trusty 4mm hook and each time the jackets turn out slight smaller or larger than 14", I didn't mind this as all babies come in different sizes. The pattern is easy to make smaller by using 3.5mm or even 3mm with 4 ply yarn and if you want a larger jacket use 4.5mm or 5mm hook with Aran, although I wouldn't make an Aran jacket for charity. I have to say these little jackets are quite addictive once you get going. I have done a lacy pattern for a baby girl and a plain one for a baby boy but you can alter the pattern to suit as long as it can fit to 62 sts. Why not download the pattern from my Ravelry store and have a play. The pattern can be found by clicking on the photo's

Happy New Year 2016!

Wishing everybody who visits my blog a fabulous Happy New Year. Hoping that 2016 is a fantastic year for all.

I didn't realise that 3 months had passed since my last post. I have been super busy crocheting and creating patterns but have had huge difficulty in taking photographs. It seems to have been so wet, dark and dreary for months and all of my crochet makes have been piling up just begging to have have its photo taken so it can be shared with you. Well today is no exception. I am sat here typing this post at 8.37 a.m. and I have the lights on because it is so dark outside. I am going to share some photos I did manage to take.

I joined a Facebook group last year called Blue Light Babies who put together baby packs which are given to paramedics to carry in the ambulances in the North East of England just in case they have to deliver a baby. Each pack contains various items all lovingly made by volunteers. I made them this cute little dress, hat and matching blanket for a little girl the group are supporting. The group are also creating a flower wall at a local hospital, once the wall comes down all the flowers will be sold to raise funds. I was also asked by the group leader Jo Owen if I could create a pattern of their logo mascot baby Bob. I must admit I found him a huge challenge but I managed to create a pattern which is now for sale via the group which is helping to raise funds.

Wet and Dreary Saturday Hooking

Well woke up this morning to dark, dreary and wet weather. I was hoping to crochet all day today anyway, so yay! for the weather, now I can put my feet up and work on my new project. I have a love of buttons and ribbon and yarn and (you get the picture) anything pretty then I'm addicted. I have been trying to tidy up my studio space and came across lots of small amounts of Stylecraft Special DK in various colours and was wandering what to do with them. So I had a little play and came up with buttons.

I thought with Autumn upon us I wanted more darker colours than bright. So I choose Lavender, Pomegranate, Spice, Aster, Lime, Saffron, Petrol and Fondant.

These little cuties shall be turned into buttons and attached to granny squares to create a tactile blanket, just need to decide what size to make the blanket. I'm leaning towards a large snuggly blanket. I have decided to use cream for the granny squares, I was going to use white but feel cream works better with my colour choices. 

I shall post more photos as I go, not sure how long this project is going to take but I'm loving it so far.